A Quick Punishment Leads Directly to Teshuvah

Parshat Chukat

by Rabbi Avi Billet

Bamidbar 21:5-8 contains what we might consider to be the quickest sin, punishment, retribution, and repentant turnaround in all of the Torah.

               

“The people spoke out against God and Moses, 'Why did you take us out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread and no water! We are getting disgusted with this wasteless/ insubstantial food.' God sent poisonous snakes against the people, and when they began biting the people, a number of Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, 'We have sinned by speaking against God and you. Pray to God, and have Him take the snakes away from us.'”

                

God then gives Moshe the solution for those who have been bitten: a copper snake raised on a pole (one international symbol for pharmacy), for people to gaze upon in order to be healed (this is a simplistic understanding of how the snake “worked”).

                

Chasam Sofer asks, why now, after 40 years in the wilderness, are the people complaining about the Manna? To further his question, we can wonder how the new generation might be expressing the sentiment that the manna doesn’t produce waste! If most of them were born, and they all grew up in the wilderness, then this is the only reality they know! How could they complain that the manna is just absorbed in the body, if they’ve never experienced waste-producing food?

                

He suggests that once they encountered other nations, and engaged with them in trade, they discovered the foods the Edomites (and others) ate, and had their first major exposure to the digestive system. However, the wheat they may have eaten did not produce waste, so they felt the Manna had destroyed their bodies.

                

Rabbenu Bachaye notes that the whole purpose of the Manna while they were traveling was to train them to have trust and faith in God. The moment they spoke falsehoods about God, they were punished with snakes, the symbol of speaking falsehoods (think Garden of Eden). [He quotes the Medrash Tanchuma that the punishment of snakes is measure for measure in a different way: the snake who eats anything and it all tastes the same to him will come and punish those who complain about eating the one thing that has many possible flavors.]

                

Rabbi Abraham Sabba (Tzror Hamor) suggests that their immediate response to the snakes of “We have sinned” brought immediate atonement for their sin. That God told Moshe to create a “Saraph” (5:8), even though Moshe made a “Nachash” (5:9) (both words seem to refer to a snake image) indicates that God’s intent was for the copper snake to serve as a healer for their ailments of the soul (refuat ha’nefesh).

                

No matter what the copper snake was meant to heal, and no matter the reason for the complaints at this time, the fact remains that the whole ordeal seems to begin and end very quickly. Even though the complaint about the Manna is understandable to us in 20/20 hindsight, the complaint about water makes no sense! Didn’t they see what just happened a chapter ago when they complained about water?

                

Could it be that they’re complaining about the new reality which will soon be upon them, that they’re going to have to shlep water and actually work hard to get the food they need once the Manna runs out and the well runs dry?

                

It’s hard to know, as the Torah doesn’t give us much background to the complaining.

                

But one thing is clear. When the guilty are punished with a swift retribution from God, without conversations or confrontations, without raised voices and ire between sides, an understanding is quickly reached.

                

Note how the Torah does not tell us that their food situation or water situation changed or improved. The tale concludes with the people owning up to their sin and with Moshe building the copper snake to help heal those who were bitten.

                

Then they move on to their next destination.

                

While I am not suggesting an overhaul of the justice system in this country (though with DNA testing, we often hear stories of innocent people sitting on death row for years), there are times – such as in the recent horrific shooting in the Charleston, S.C church, as well as other mass shootings in the country – where the perpetrator is known, there are multiple witnesses, and the blood is on his hands, where the swift punishment would drive the message home. A speedy trial without lengthy deliberations, as necessary.

                

It worked in the Torah! For the first time, the people immediately admit their guilt, and they don’t even get what they want!

                

Alas, God is the only One Who can be so sure. Until such a time when He chooses to punish accordingly again, we can marvel at how quickly the lesson is learned, and hope that in our own human way we can learn from His incredible example.